


Hounds Tooth Hearts

by jatty



Category: My Chemical Romance
Genre: Alternate Universe - Elementary School, Gen, Kid Fic, M/M, Valentine's Day Fluff, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-12
Updated: 2015-01-12
Packaged: 2018-03-07 06:13:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3164294
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jatty/pseuds/jatty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Every year the teachers made them decorate boxes to receive valentines from their classmates on Valentine's Day. The year before, Gerard had been given nothing except a mean letter from another student. Distressed by the story of his classmates' cruelty, Frank is determined to make sure that this year is one Gerard won't have to regret!</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hounds Tooth Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> It may be early January, but anyone working in retail knows it may as well be Valentine's Day already. So after a stressful night at work stocking V-day goodies, I thought up this story and thought I'd share. Hope you enjoy!

Gerard let out a shaky sigh as he glued the final piece of black construction paper lace onto the box he was being made to decorate. Tomorrow was that awful, dreaded, stupid commercial holiday that came once a year to rub his face in how unpopular and disliked he was—Valentine’s Day—and though Gerard tried begging his mother to let him stay home, she wouldn’t.

The previous year, Gerard had been on the receiving end of a nasty prank. The whole fourth grade class had skipped him, and the only “valentine” he’d gotten in the box he was forced to make was a folded up note detailing how he was fat and stupid with a drawing of him at the bottom of the page with little arrows pointing to his bad traits. Greasy hair, it read. Round belly. Scary pale. Ugly face. 

Gerard didn’t see why the teacher was forcing him to make another box this year when he knew the same thing would happen again. All his classmates were the same as the year before, save for a few other kids who had transferred in that year for fifth grade. As much as he wanted to make his shoe box look as crappy as he felt, Gerard felt compelled to make an effort. If there was one thing—one thing in the world—Gerard could do better than his classmates, it was art. So he made the box a stylish and sleek black and white. Instead of drawing little hearts like the girls or making the box look like a racecar like all the other boys tried to do, Gerard cut out individual, interlocking shapes to create a hounds tooth pattern and trimmed it with hand-cut, black paper lace. He _knew_ the other boys would pick on him for adding lace, knew he’d get another bad drawing probably calling him a freak or a gothic freak. 

“It’s supposed to be a Valentine’s box, Gerard, not a Halloween box,” his mother said, checking on his work at the kitchen table where he sat.

“I don’t care. I hate Valentine’s Day,” Gerard mumbled. 

“You’ll like it someday when you’ve got a girlfriend,” his mother said, laughing quietly.

“I don’t want a girlfriend,” Gerard mumbled, looking over his box to make sure it was all okay and presentable for the next day. 

( ) ( ) ( )

Frank sat on the floor next to his bed, filling out card after card after card, smiling as he did. There were only twenty kids in his class, but Frank managed to trick both his parents into buying him boxes of cards and little packets of candy. It wasn’t hard to trick them. Since they had divorced, Frank had learned fast how to manipulate them. If he wanted something from his dad, he just had to mention mom refusing to get it for him. His dad, wanting to be on his good side, would buy him whatever she wouldn’t. His mother was determined to be the superior parent, so when Frank mentioned his dad was going to buy him something _maybe,_ his mother would go out to buy it for him the next day.

So when Frank told his mom he needed Valentine’s card, she’d bought them, then he told his father that his mom said the cards were an unnecessary expense so his father bought him both cards and candy. 

Little did his parents know that all the cards and all the candy was meant for not an entire class, but one particular student. 

There was a boy—Gerard (Frank giggled to himself and couldn’t help but smile every time he thought of the name)—who was always picked on by the other kids. Frank had only transferred in this year, but he’d heard a story from one of the girls in his class that the year before everyone had agreed not to give Gerard any cards because he was “fat and weird.” 

Frank stopped talking to the girl after she’d said that. He didn’t see why everyone thought Gerard was weird, he was just quiet. And he probably wouldn’t be so quiet if they all weren’t so mean to him. Frank had tried countless times to get Gerard to talk to him, even going out of his way to get paired with him for class projects, but the other boy never showed any interest. It made Frank sad, but he refused to take it personally.

Gerard just needed…incentive. 

And that incentive was going to come in the form of cards. Dozens and dozens of cards! And candy too. 

And that wasn’t all either. The day before, Frank’s father had let him go into the dollar store by himself to buy cards and candy and “anything else” he thought he needed for his Valentine’s Day. He’d been told not to spend all the money, but Frank still spent close to fifteen of it all on little things for Gerard. 

“Got a crush on somebody, Frankie?” His father had asked, laughing at him when he saw all of the candy and little trinkets. 

“No,” Frank said defiantly, his cheeks burning and giving him away. Crushes were something girls got…Frank Iero didn’t have a crush, he just wanted to be nice to the shy, nice boy in his class. Shy, nice, _cute_ boy in his class.

It wasn’t fair that everyone thought Gerard was fat. He didn’t look fat to Frank. Maybe he was a little bit chubby, but to Frank that just made him look all the more squishy and soft and huggable. Hugs from Gerard would probably be really awesome. 

Maybe once Gerard got all of the cards he’d give Frank a hug in front of everyone!

Except Gerard was probably too shy for that.

That was okay. Frank would be happy just to get a smile from Gerard. Maybe a smile could turn to friendship. Maybe Gerard would let Frank sit with him at lunch without pretending like he wasn’t in the room.

( ) ( ) ( )

Frank thought that maybe he should’ve spent more time on his box than he had on signing all the cards he’d made out to Gerard. All the other boxes were really well made except for one boy who literally just cut a hole in the top of a shoebox and didn’t care to decorate it at all. Frank’s mother had helped him wrap his box in white paper and he’d added little drawings of guitars and a few red stripes. His looked like crap compared to everyone else’s—compared to Gerard’s.

“Hey, my coat matches your box!” Frank said before class had stared. He stopped by Gerard’s desk because he always made a point to walk past it in hopes that he’d be brave enough to start a conversation. 

“It’s called hounds tooth,” Gerard mumbled, not looking up from the sketch he was etching on his lined notebook paper. 

“Your box?” Frank asked, blinking in confusion. Maybe it was a little weird for Gerard to name his Valentine’s box.

“No. The print. It’s called hounds tooth.”

“Oh. That’s pretty cool.”

Gerard didn’t answer and Frank hurried over to his seat before the bell rang. Everybody had their boxes set on the corner of their desks with their plastic bags full of cards beside them. Even Gerard had a little bag of cards on the floor beside him.

So when the teacher came in and told them all it was time to deliver their valentines, Gerard slowly stood up from his desk and started making the rounds with everyone else. 

Frank pretended to put valentines in the boxes of the other students, looking up every now and then to look at Gerard’s box. Like the year before, the other students avoided it and Frank felt like he might cry. It was so cruel. Gerard had never done anything to anybody. Why was everyone so rude!?

The only comfort Frank had was in knowing he was about to change that cruelty. While everyone was busy fawning of Jessica Emmerson’s frilly, heart-shaped box, Frank hurried over to Gerard’s box, took the lid off and dumped in the contents of his entire bag of candy and cards and little rubber bears holding hearts with lights inside and pens with roses on the top and all the other cute things Frank had picked up for a dollar or less.

He’d just barely had time to replace the lid before Gerard started walking over toward him. Frank hurried back to his desk and sat down, crumpling up his bag in his hand and then stuffing it into the cubby of his desk. They didn’t have to stay at their desks when they opened their boxes, and most of the girls had gone to join their friends to open up all their valentines together. Even the boys had formed a group at the back of the room, cheering over candy they got whether it was heart-shaped and girly or not. 

Frank tried not to make it obvious that he was watching Gerard over his shoulder when the other boy sat down at his desk. Gerard opened his notebook, not paying any attention to his box at all, and started sketching. Frank was about to get up and go tell Gerard to check it, but Gerard bumped it with his elbow and went to pick it up and set it on the floor so he could have room to draw. 

When he picked it up though, he found it heavy and blinked in surprise a few times before setting it back down on his desk. He looked conflicted, almost fearful as he started lifting the lid, as if preparing himself for another prank. When all he saw were cards and candies, his eyes lit up and Frank started to smile.

Gerard picked up one of the cards and opened it, then picked up a second. His eyebrow furrowed and he picked up a third. When he saw that it too was addressed to him from Frank, his eye shot toward Frank who was then caught staring at him. Instead of looking embarrassed, Frank just grinned. 

( ) ( ) ( )

Gerard felt his face start to turn red and he looked back down at the box. It was stuffed full of cards and little packs of candy and heart-shaped suckers. There were also little rubber bears with hearts in their hands that lit up when Gerard pressed on them, and a couple of pens with roses for erasers. Even those had tags stuck to them reading “To: Geeee From: Frnkkk.”

Gerard looked away from Frank who was _staring_ at him, and scanned the room. He expected everyone to be staring at him too, waiting to make fun of him for only getting cards from one person and a boy at that. 

But everyone else was busy digging through their boxes and showing off their cards. One girl was gushing over an anonymous love letter and Gerard seemed to be the last thing on their minds. 

Gerard closed the lid on his box and looked down again. He was embarrassed and out of place. No one had ever given him a valentine before. No one. Now Frank had filled the box full of cards and candy and toys too. 

What was he supposed to do now? 

But it seemed Frank was making that decision for him—he was approaching Gerard’s desk and sat down beside him. 

“Hi,” Frank said, smiling wide. He made Gerard think of a puppy—a giddy, fearless, love struck puppy.

“Um… Hi.”

“I got you a card,” Frank said, smiling and giggling because they both knew “a card” was a hideous understatement.

“Why?” Gerard asked. He still expected this to turn into a prank. Maybe underneath all the cards there was a dead rat or another awful letter like he’d gotten the year before. 

“’Cause you’re cool?” Frank said, smiling and tilting his head a little more.

“No I’m not,” Gerard said, leaning back in his seat. 

“I think so,” Frank said, then quickly added. “Can I have one of the chocolates? I didn’t get to eat any…”

Gerard hesitated and then opened the lid of his valentine’s box again and pulled out one of the little chocolate hearts. When he handed it to Frank, Frank grabbed his hand instead and started giggling and immediately let go. 

“What?” Gerard asked, blushing hard.

“Nothing,” Frank said, taking the chocolate and unwrapping it. He broke off half of it and handed it to Gerard. He didn’t ask if Gerard wanted it, he just held it out until Gerard took it and put it in his mouth. 

The teacher called out that it was time for everybody to start getting ready to go back to their seats, but Frank didn’t move. He just stared at Gerard and smiled, and smiled…and smiled until finally he asked, “Can I eat lunch with you?”

Gerard, blushing more than a little, nodded and said yes.


End file.
